A couple weeks ago CNN asked readers who should fill the ''doctor'' shortage. Nine responses are now posted on CNNMoney.com -- two from NPs, three from physicians and one each from a med student, a PA, an EMT and a consumer. Everyone but the EMT address the question of the role of NPs and PAs in primary care. The consumer loves NPs and ...

My parents retired a few years ago and moved to a ''55 and older'' community on the east coast. They know all their neighbors, and everyone knows everyone else's health status, who sees which health care providers, and every provider's business practices. My dad's quick recovery from knee replacement surgery convinced a neighbor a block over to ...

Last year at this time, I attended the signing of a key law expanding NP privileges in Pennsylvania. Milling about before the ceremony, I was buttonholed by a dental hygienist hoping to spread the word about the valuable work those practitioners do. Gov. Rendell was signing another law that day eliminating the legal requirement that dental ...

Follow nurse practitioner Lois Wessel's lead and make national policy briefings your second job. Wessel wrote a touching and informative article for Tuesday's Washington Post, explaining her position at a mobile health clinic in Silver Spring, Md., and the barriers to care the U.S. health system throws up before her mostly immigrant patients. ...